Take this with a medium grain of salt though: I was at the dealer getting my all too often oil changed, when I started roaming around the showroom floor as I was waiting. This is a brand new Hyundai dealership I’m in mind you. So far from the 4 or so visits I’ve been, its fantastic, from its cleanness to the staff to the service prices. I was checking out a silver Sonata Turbo that was on the show room floor which I found to be damn impressive in person. Something that would make the commute a little more exciting and enjoyable.

Sales guy walks up to me and asks if I wanted to take it for a spin. I just said nah, I just bought an ‘18 Sonata SE a few months back. We started joking about the potential to trade up in a few years. I stated of course. Hyundai had made a repeat customer out of me with me either staying with Sonata for my next car, or moving onto Genesis or a Stinger.

We started going over the power and performance of the Sonata Turbo. I made an offhand remark about how while it is pretty quick, it was still down on power compared to the competition and that the new 8 speed auto could only do so much ( surprisingly, he actually knew what he was talking about enough for me to gauge that the guy was into cars).

That’s when he dropped it on me: apparently, the owner of the dealer kept them in the product knowledge loop for future vehicles, and that a new Sonata is slated for 2020 along with a Sonata N. I was surprised since I hadn’t heard or seen anything on the net about it with the only thing I found was a an Australian site reporting on it being possible last year. This came from the mouth of Peter Scheryer, who is head of Hyundai/Kia/Genesis design and was the designer of the original Audi TT. He said that the decision about it though was still up in the air as to whether or not it would be a full on N, or just another Turbo. Either way he said, expect an all new engine or for the car to use the engine from the Veloster N.

He had me up until he said the final part: why would a hotter Sonata N use the Veloster N’s engine in a car that is way heavier?

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Not to mention even using the Veloster N’s powertrain, this Sonata N would still be down on power compared to the competition’s non performance trims. When a Camry is making 300 horses, you need to come out punching. So there you have it. A possible Sonata N is coming with the all new car or possibly just a more powerful Turbo version of it. What do you guys think?